When they act silly
Mfumu Herode atapha Yohane
Anthu opusa adamuombera m’manja
Atamva kuomba m’manja anazipopa
Anafuna winanso kuti aphenso
Muyimbiranji m’manjamo?
Mukupusitsa akulu
When King Herod beheaded John
idiots clapped hands for him
Encouraged by the handclapping
He become pompous and looked for another to kill
Why do you clap hands?
You are making fools of the elderly
—Billy Kaunda—
President Barack Obama has perhaps the toughest job in the world. He leads the most powerful and sophisticated nation on earth. In his in-tray, there is the ISIS problem to solve, he has to deal with North Korea’s petulant leader Kim Jong- Un’s perpetual threat of a nuclear war, and then he has to attend to the sabre-rattler of Russia, Vladimir Putin apart from the myriad problems he has at home.
But looking at Obama, one would think he is just a jolly middle-aged man running a happy social club. He does not look craggy and rundown like our leaders here at home. And Obama does not go about ranting like a man gone bonkers just to show the world that he is in-charge or is running affairs.
It is pretty different at home. Our leaders want to carry themselves with an air of eminence and exaggerated seriousness. Sometimes, just to show how powerful they are, they stop smiling altogether and wear the faces of a man troubled by acute constipation.
And make sure kids are out of earshot when these leaders open their mouths. Mostly, these leaders are out of ideas and to hide their ineptitude they resort to shouting, swearing or issuing threats to imaginary foes.
On Sunday, President Peter Mutharika hit a new low in his twenty-two-month period as President of Malawi. At the ground breaking ceremony of the Dae Yung Hospital Teaching College, Peter shocked the world and left some of us embarrassed when he went into tantrums at people he believes are out there to snatch the presidency from him.
Apparently, Mutharika was so furious that he even forgot that he was at a dignified meeting not a party rally where, as we have been cultured to believe, such ranting are the order of the day. Those who sat close to the plinth could clearly see that most of the cabinet ministers present looked downcast in embarrassment as Peter went on to attack whoever came to his mind be it the media, some Nigerian prophet who answers to the name TB Joshua and the opposition.
Personally, I would excuse Peter’s behaviour that Sunday had he been one of those uncultured leaders we have had before. But here is a professor with all titles to boot, a man who has walked in the elite corridors and spent close to forty years in the civilised world acting like an angry bus tout.
Peter, to be raw, was out of order. First, he is just being like some presidents before him who want to convince the world that they can do without newspapers yet the first thing they do is bury their heads in the dailies. If indeed Peter does not read newspapers, then it is clearly he is one of those guys who does not take criticism lightly. Such are dangerous leaders who prefer being told lies by their cronies.
Again, Peter should not have stooped so low to start attacking TB Joshua for a prophecy that is not even true. What is shocking is that Peter Mutharika has someone who pockets at least K1.7million a month— that is minus allowances and other kickbacks— for being his advisor on religious affairs. Here there are two ways, it’s either Peter does not take advice or he has a useless advisor who is sleeping on his job. Elsewhere such an advisor should have been booted for misleading the president. But at home, those are the kind of people we love to keep which is a very bad idea.
Sometimes, one would start believing that Mutharika is not the problem but those who have surrounded him are. Sometimes, they say, when you are growing old like Peter is, you live in reverse and start acting like a child. And you and I know that one of the traits of children is being impressionable. It appears Peter is one impressionable guy that is why he is easily buying whatever he is lied to even to the extent of mastering street lingo like the nilibe pulobulemus of this world.
And if you noticed, Peter easily gets carried away by the chants of those dancing women and cadets. Once he hears them sing, he seems to be losing his mind and start ranting. Peter is better off without those boys who have nothing to do other than paint themselves and those loafing women whose national contribution is wiggling their waists for presidents.
As I have said in the epigram, our leaders are misled by people who praise them when they act silly.
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